


That which Blooms

by SonofCalypso



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Hades and Persephone, Kidnapping, M/M, Pagan Gods
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-03-06 17:25:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13416042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonofCalypso/pseuds/SonofCalypso
Summary: They were beautiful. They glistened like they were made out crystals and the fragrance was so sweet and alluring Marco couldn’t help but reach out to touch them.The moment his fingers touched the cold petals the ground under him began to tremble and quake. Where the flowers grew a great gaping fissure opened, billowing smoke and heat. From the fissure rose towering galloping horses, black as shadows with rolling eyes as red as blood. They pounded the ground under razor-sharp hooves pulling some great weight from the ground below them. Marco wanted to run but shock and fear froze him to the spot. Emerging from the cavernous hole in the ground pulled by the four stallions was a carriage and astride it was figure clad in black. Eyes like torches in the night. Marco was not sure quite how or when but he found himself snatched away from where he set and they were plummeting back into the dark fissure where the dark carriage and its rider had risen from. Down, down into the dark.





	1. Chapter 1

His parents had never been overbearing. They loved openly and freely and allowed him to make his own choices yet were always there when he needed them to be. Still, he was never without some form of guardian. Satyrs, nymphs, someone was always close to watching and waiting. Today was different though. Today he was alone and he reveled in it even if it would be for a short time. He was supposed to be meeting Star in the field. He had no reason to be wary, however. This was, after all, his field. Every flower here had been grown from seed to bloom. Anemone, poppy, iris, and peony, they all flourished in beautiful rainbow array among the emerald green grass and near the crystal blue waters of the creek that flowed through it all.  
He held power over all manner of flora and fauna, all things that bloomed and grew and needed tending to. All granted to him by his mother, a goddess of nature herself and his father, a wild god of the hunt and wild beast. This field had once been barren and craggy earth. He remembered his mom bringing him here and telling him simply to make it grow. She needn’t ask twice. He had been beside himself at the brown earth. The first creatures to wander into the field had been his father’s and the older god ad knelt close the Godling’s ear and asked him could he understand their minds and he could easily. Ever since then, this field and the outlaying forest and glens had been his responsibility one which he had poured himself, his parents always close by of course. 

Marco decided that instead of standing there awkwardly waiting. For Star to show up, that he would gather flowers, to knit into a crown for her. He walked through the rolling grass leaning over each bloom looking for the perfect one for Star. Sadly, not a single flower seemed fitting of the young goddess. Not in color or meaning. Sitting down with a slump, he sighed trying to. Figure out just what to do. Twirling his fingers in the grass, he thought of her. She was rebellious and strong, kind and just. The goddess of magic and the cosmos. Slowly from the ground where Marco’s fingers twisted and twirled the long blades of grass burst a shoot of green which quickly and reached higher and higher, splitting off and sprouting leaves. Slowly a bush of flowers began to blood, purple and white star-shaped petals. “Yeah, these will be perfect. Starflowers for Star.” Marco said to himself, beginning to pluck the fruits of his labors from the bush that now grew around him in a star shape hedge. Standing up and stepping out he was just about to start work on using his powers to weave the flowers in two beautiful crowns when a glint of silver something silver caught his eyes.  
Wondering over Marco was surprised to find a small cluster of silver and Prussian blue Narcissus. He hadn’t made these. Yes, there were many blooms of this exact plant growing all over his garden as it was his favorite flowers but he had created none like these. Only a fair few new is fondness of the deep heavy shady of blue and try as he might he could never get anything to grow even remotely close to the color especially never accented with silver leaves and stims. They were beautiful. They glistened like they were made out crystals and the fragrance was so sweet and alluring Marco couldn’t help but reach out to touch them. The moment his fingers touched the cold petals the ground under him began to tremble and quake. Where the flowers grew a great gaping fissure opened, billowing smoke and heat. From the fissure rose towering galloping horses, black as shadows with rolling eyes as red as blood. They pounded the ground under razor-sharp hooves pulling some great weight from the ground below them. Marco wanted to run but shock and fear froze him to the spot. Emerging from the cavernous hole in the ground pulled by the four stallions was a carriage and astride it was figure clad in black. Eyes like torches in the night. Marco was not sure quite how or when but he found himself snatched away from where he set and they were plummeting back into the dark fissure where the dark carriage and its rider had risen from. Down, down into the dark. 

 

When Marco came to it was still dark.  
“You are not Star Butterfly,” said a voice in the shadows.  
Marco quickly set up, eyes darting around him. There was no one there on shadows and glowing crystals embed into cavernous walls. Above him the same crystals glinted in the rocky ceiling that stretched so high above him he could have mistaken it for the night sky and entertained the fantasy that he was back in his field watching the constellations race.  
“those flowers were for Star not you!” the voice hissed angrily seeming so close to Marco that he felt it on the back of his neck, raising his hair there and sending a shiver down his spine.  
Whipping around he was met again with an empty cavern and glittering shadow.  
“No I’m not Star, but she’s my friend. What do you want of her.” The young godling whispered standing up. He was frightened but he would not cower to whatever being this was. Gods do not cower.  
“If doesn’t matter now. You’re the one who took the flowers. You’re the one who must be here.”  
There was barely concealed anger in the statement, laced with disappointment.  
“And where is here.” Marco pressed. His golden skin glowed dully in the darkness and where he had lain on the once rocky ground was now covered in grass, small vines lacing themselves up his legs and reaching for his fingers.  
He tried to direct his godly light into the darkness so see his capture but the shadows did not break for even.  
“Come out. Show me your face.” Marco tried. He was no angry or upset. His parents had told taught him undue aggression had no place in nature. If things could talk out civilly and calmly without raised voices and bodily harm then always go that route first. Marco approached his as though he were talking to an unruly wild beast, like a hydra or one of the giant lions his father told him about.  
“Do you know where you are, little god.” The voice said; once again close, so close it made Marco shiver.  
“No.”  
“You are in the underworld. You have accepted a gift from the land of the dead and now I must keep you here.”  
Marco spun around again. He caught a glimpse of red in the shadow but that was all.  
The underworld? Had he been taken by some specter or shade, one who had intended to capture Star instead?  
“Who are you.”  
“I have many names. Mortals have called my mother and me Hades. I am the pale rider, lord of shadows and flame, host of many, the unseen, and one day the ruler of all things living.”  
From the darkness came a figure. Pale skin tinted in lavender like it had never seen the rays of the sun, hair-like pale flames, eyes of ruby red with a third eye in the center of his forehead. Sharp horns furled up from the pale red hair. All three eyes fell on Marco, boring into his soul.  
“But you can call me Tom. Prince of the Underworld


	2. Prince of Darkness

Marco followed behind Tom, a glowing golden spot in the darkness around them.   
He kept his distance from the muttering angry god but the deeper they went the more annoyed Marco grew.  
“so let me get this straight, you and Star used to date? And instead of trying to talk to her like a normal person you tried to kidnap her?”  
Marco followed the demon prince deeper and deeper into the darkness. His golden glow eerily lighting the highly reflective surface of the stones and rocks around them, which grew more polished and crystalline as they tracked deeper.  
“You wouldn’t understand.”  
“No, I would not. You cannot simply kidnap people and force them to love you!”  
“WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW?” Tom roared rebounding on Marco.  
Immediately vines and thorned brambles arched over his shoulder ready to attack as tendrils of shadows wrapped around his tunic and arms, like grasping hands Tom was a blazing inferno, his body wreathed in flames and shadow, eyes glowing red and angry.  
“I HAVE HEARD THE STORIES OF STAR’S OWN FATHER, THE GOD OF THUNDER AND HEAVENS, AND HIS MANY CONQUESTS. OF HIS ABDUCTION OF THE SHEPARD BOY INTO THE REALM OF THE GODS AND MANY COUNTLESS OTHERS WHO HAVE BEEN FORCED TO KNEEL BEFORE HIS GODLY COCK! YOU THINK TO JUDGE ME!!”  
Marco did not back down, his glow taking over his body till he looked like a golden ray of light  
“MY FATHER AND MOTHER WOULD AND HAVE JUDGED STAR’S FATHER HARSHLY FOR HIS LOVERS BOTH THOSE WILLING AND UNWILLING. YOUR ARGUMENT HOLDS NO PLACE WITH ME. YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN HE IS IF YOU THINK KIDNAPPING STAR WAS EVEN OK IN THE SLIGHTEST!”

They were nose to nose now; shadow and flame battling vine and light. Tom growled low in his chest and pulled away, the fire dying on his skin, leaving him cloaked in darkness once more.  
Marco followed suit but allowed a line of thorns to grow around his wrist, waist, and neck, ready should the demon lord explode again.  
“I only wanted to talk.” He breathed turning his back to Marco.  
“I would have found a way to release her if she truly did not wish to stay.”  
“And me? I do not wish to be here any more than Star, though I will stay in her stead.”  
“You took of the dead. You cannot leave, not now anyway. I must take you before my parents.”  
Marco nodded continuing to fallow Tom.  
It was dark and quiet. The only sound, the tap of Marco’s sandals upon the stone. Marco felt no steepness as they walk, no inclination they were going deeper. Perhaps the decent was so gradual that he did not notice. They walked on in the darkness. Rocky earth and stone walls giving way to more and more polished and shinier stones and crystals till finally, Marco noted that it looked more like a hall around them than the inside of the subterranean cave. It was at this point began to notice something else as well. Small wispy balls of pale white and grey light. At first, he had merely mistaken them for fireflies, perhaps glow worms in the distance but now they littered the air in sparse numbers like glowing balls of spider silk and vapor.  
“Souls.” Tom supplied over his shoulder noting Marco turning this way and that to behold the strange things, which had taken notice of him as well  
They passed around and threw him making his skin feel cold and sending shivers down his spine.  
“They will grow more numerous and intelligent the closer we get to the gates”  
One of the orbs flew close to Marco's face and though he could discern no facial features or any such things from the small ball, he felt it was an old woman. There was a feeling of long life and forlornness.  
“don’t get distracted by them. They are prone to leading other souls astray.” Marco said over his shoulder.  
Marco stepped again from the small orb and continued following Tom.  
As they trudged further and deeper the orbs grew in number. The more architectural their surrounding became the more they began to resemble human forms,  
Complete with clothes and hair.  
Ghost Marco's mind supplied looking around  
He had been so distracted by eh spirits and specters around him that he didn’t notice Tom had stopped and ran smack into the demon prince’s back  
Tom’s body erupted in flames for a split second as he turned and glared at the young forest god.  
Marco held up his hands in defense.  
Slowly his eyes left tom and traveled up to see what had caused the other god-ling to stop.  
They stood before a large gleaming onyx door. It was the largest door he had ever seen.  
Gathered around, linger in the massive hall were spirits and specters. These more solid and numerous than the ones that lingered along the path.  
Tom paid no attention to the shades and specters that lingered longingly by the gate begging for entry. He merely pushed open the large and heavy gates as though they were nothing.  
If Marco had through the long hall was filled with numerous souls then he was mistaken once he saw what lay beyond the doors.  
Spirits, ghost, gorgons, harpies and all manner of demons   
It was like a marketplace. Busy and bustling with all manner of creatures but many ghost and demons. The demons seemed to be servicemen, attending to the spirits and shades and ushering them along in their ranks.  
Marco couldn’t help himself as he tried to keep up with Tom’s brisk gate. He looked around noticing how everyone bowed to the underworld prince and stared at him. He had never been more conscious of his golden glow than he was now but his awe and curiosity outshined his sudden self-consciousness.

“this is Taenarum, the lowest most kingdom in the land of the dead. This is where souls make their entry into the underworld and cross over the river Styx where we must cross.”  
Supplied Tom noting how Marco was taking everything in.  
“the river of the dead?” Marco asked curiously.  
“yes but contrary to common believe there are in 5 rivers in the underworld., in the center of where they conjoin are the marshes”  
Marco continued to fallow Tom through the throngs of dead and demonic.  
Soon the came along a dock of sorts where a large skift waited for them  
“Charon!” tom called out of the ghostly and empty looking ship.  
There was no response.  
“Charon show yourself your bag of bones and horse fodder!” Tom yelled his shadowy form beginning to smoke and glow like an ember.  
The was the great sound of creaking wood and wind as the skiff before them, rocked and swayed  
Then from the bow of the ship rose a great towering finger shrouded in black robes and a dark hood.  
“now-now my lord prince, no need to shout!” said a whispering windy voice.  
“then learn to come when I first call.”  
The tall figure let out a chuckle that sounded like wind through the bare branches of long-dead trees and Marco shivered.  
Within the dark hood set two burning green orbs like fireflies which had shot to macro the moment the shiver passed down his spine.  
“I do not believe this is Star butterfly. No, I know this young god but I can not place him.  
“this is Marco the of those who control earth and its many flora and fauna.”  
“I take it your plans did not go as expected my prince,” said Charon  
Suddenly he leaned his towering frame over and was eye to with Marco, body creaking like the wood of his ship.  
In the dull glow of the young nature god’s golden body, he could see within the pitch darkness of the hood. At first, he thought he was looking at a skull and that Charon was nothing but bone beneath his billowing cloak but there was flesh around those firefly eyes. The skull was merely a mask though Marco was certain were he to remove it he would have found a head not much different than a skull by how gaunt and thin the ferryman looked.  
“welcome young godling of the wild places.”  
Charon held out his bony hand palm open and expectant.  
Marco was no fool and knew the price asked of even god to pass board the ferryman’s boat but he had no gold with him and knew not truly how to grow or cultivate it though he knew how to make many fine crystals and gems. Metals were far harder and tiring.  
Tom had come prepared however and dropped two large gold coins into Charon’s hand.  
Marco could help but note that his long bony fingers closing around the gold made him think of a spider’s legs.  
“you may board.”  
There was a flash of something and Marco found himself being hoisted onto the small ship by the neck of his toga.  
Looking up he noted he was being carried by the long sharp blade of a scythe   
He was planted neatly on the deck and given a small part on the head by Charon who chuckled again at his bewildered stare.  
Tom shook his head and vanished in a blaze of fire only to reappear next to Maroc in the same blaze.  
“watch the flames, my lord. This thing is still under warranty.” Charon chuckled again that windy hallow sound.  
The boat began to slowly inch forward

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, here we are, chapter 2.  
> I know it a bit short but its something. I will try to make the future chapters longer  
> Also, sorry for the long wait. things have just been a little hectic lately and I just couldn't bring myself to work on any of my fanfics as of late.  
> As always kudos and comments keep me going


	3. Queen of The Underworld

They stayed away from each other. Marco was perfectly fine with that. This would be over soon. He knew very little of the goddess of the underworld, save that she was.. well unknown. She had long ago refused to participate in the revelry of the other gods and goddess preferring her own realm to theirs. Marco’s parents had been similar in that regard, preferring their flora and fauna over the political intrigue of mount Mewni where the other gods flocked.  
But one thing was known, it was that she was just and would see reason. He would go home and meet Star.  
So they rode on in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.  
Marco stared into the water of the river Styx finding its strange eerie green/blue glow calming and beautiful. As he stared closer he could make out what he at first assumed were some strange form of jellyfish but then realized with horror he was wrong. They were souls, their faces pale and gaunt, the forms ethereal in long flowing tatters garments.  
He leaned over closer to inspect them as they gathered at the side of the boat, their voices watery and haunting calling up to him. Unthinkingly he reached out his hand to touch one of the ghostly hands that seemed composed of the very river itself  
Suddenly a ball of fire shot past him into the water shattering the ghostly figures and the hold they held over him. Marco looked up stunned as Tom glared at him from where he stood at the stern of the deck.  
“Those are the damned souls, those who made promises and oaths by the name of this river, those who tried to win passage to the underworld either by force or by lies and deceit. They are the river and the river is them. they also drown any soul who dares try and bring them ashore or save them. “ Tom seethed, body still ablaze with dark swirling smoke and fire.  
“so it would be best if certain young gods DID NOY STUPIDLY LEAN OVER THE BOAT!!!”  
Marco huffed and crossed his arms turning his back to Tom.  
He had saved him true but was it necessary for him to be an ass about it?  
Marco had never been to the underworld and knew nothing of its’s way or rules. He wouldn’t even be here had tom not tried to kidnap Star and got him by mistake.

They sailed on, Marco choosing to stay far from the side of the boat and focusing on what lay ahead of them instead and tom watching from the higher deck.  
The underworld was cavernous and immense and from the river, it looked infinite and unending. They sailed on passing dark forest and shores, where creatures Marco could never hope to name lurked and lounged. They passed places where the river split off into complete different rivers and at the center of it all was great marshland filled the sounds of cries and wails.  
Charon skirted them around the island and Marco was grateful for it sent a shiver of dread and unease up his spine. His glow grew brighter in his fear and it was almost as the darkness form the marshes shrunk back from it.  
Finally in the distance rose a great palace unlike any Marco had ever seen. It was made of quartz and stone all lit by an eerie shifting red light that seemed to come from the ground.  
As Marco stared on in awe a loud rushing roar could be heard. To Marco’s horror, he realized the river Styx fell away to a raging waterfall.  
He spun around expecting to find Tom and Charon as panicked as he was but neither seemed bothered. Charon sailed on getting closer and closer to the edge.  
There, Marco saw that the eerie red light was from a pit of lava out of which the palace grew, like some beautifully burning flower.  
Marco braced himself along the ship railing expecting to go plummeting off the edge of the waterfall. He closed his eyes ready for whatever hell lay before them, expecting the feel air rushing passed him but nothing happened. Slowly the young godling opened his eyes to find they were not falling.  
The river had risen up to meet them, the waterfall flowing away from the edge where it plummeting into the lava below.  
The water flowed through the air, snaking towards the dazzling estate.  
The river Styx curls around the stalk on which the palace sits growing from the lava. Marco watches in bewilderment as Charon pilots the boat along the floating river closer and closer to the palace which is as immense as the underworld itself.  
Large and imposing as it were some great dragon ready to devour them.  
The boat slows to a stop at the gates of the palace and tom walked down from the upper deck and waited for the gangplank to be lowered. He stared back at Marco expectantly and the young demi-god fallows him off of the boat watching over his shoulder ad Charon sails away, the river retreating with him.

The hall is tall and ginormous as is everything in the underworld Marco is starting to realize. The floor and columns are the same dark onyx he had seen in the entrance of the underworld. The ceiling is a glittering ornate mosaic of gems and stones, depicting great battles and the old war as well as many tiny depictions of other gods. Marco stops staring up one particular spot on the ceiling as they near a set of black doors very much like the ones they had passed through at the start of their journey. There where the mosaic merges into the columns of flanking the door are two familiar figures in what looks like a field of rainbow flowers. one of them is a boy clutching odd blue flowers and the other is a black and red flooded form with three ruby eyes.  
Marco has no time to speak his realization out loud as Tom his grabbing him by the arm and dragging him through the monstrous doors.  
Tom hurried Marco along then abruptly stop causing the young god to trip over himself and fall to his knees.  
Looking up Marco fought the gasp that threatened to fall from his mouth.  
There on a throne of countless bones was a huge demon towering over the hall. She had dark pink hair push back by two massive bull-like horns and three glowing yellow eyes in the same locations as Tom’s. her skin was a shifting sparkling red under a flowing shadowy black dress.  
She stared down at Marco quizzically then to Tom. There was such love and fondness in her eyes Marco was almost shocked but immediately at ease. This was RTom’s mother. the goddess of the darkness,  
Wrathmelior.  
“mother… we have a problem. I've… I've made a mistake.” Tom sighed loudly walking toward his mother. as he did all the shadows and flames fell away from him and Marco saw he really was just boy no older than himself, in black robes and a white toga.  
Wrathmelior raised her massive hand and set it down for her son to climb onto and then lifted it to her face when Tom pressed his head to hers in fond greeting.  
When the great demoness opened her eyes again they looked onto Marco  
He stood but kept his head bows.  
“this is Marco. he took something I left out for Star.  
Wrathmelior raised a single slim brow at her son as he addressed Marco below them.  
“I… I tried to…  
“he tried to kidnap star butterfly!” Marco said loudly glaring up at Tom.  
“he set out a trap of flowers in my fields and I stumbled across it. now I am here.”  
Tom glared down at Marco, smoke, shadows, and flames beginning to enveloped him again.  
“I just wanted to talk!”  
“that’s not how you try tog et someone to talk to you!”  
To Marco’s surprise, Wrathmelior nodded in agreement with him.  
She rumbled out some words in a guttural growling language Marco had never heard and tom stiffened.  
“yes I know what happens if someone takes something of the underworld, but I was desperate. Star would never talk to me otherwise and I thought if she could just stay here for a while, we could work things out till we figured out how to get her home.”  
Tom’s mother growled and spoke again.  
As she set him down next to Marco.  
“yes, I am aware that could be considered entrapment but mother you don’t understand!”  
The great demoness held up her hand for silence and then spoke in the growling dark language again.  
She pointed at Marco and growled down at her son.  
“but.. he can’t stay here! It was supposed to be Star!”  
Wrathmelior gave her son an unimpressed look then turned to Marco and patted him gently on the head with massive hand.  
She spoke in that language again and Marco looked to tom for some form translation.  
The fuming prince crossed his arms and growled out  
“she says you have to stay. Until she can get topside to talk to your parents and then Star’s father. The rules of the underworld are finite. You took something from the underworld and you must stay till someone up above comes and gets you and that… may take time.”  
Marco turned back tot queen of the underworld ins shock and horror.  
“no, I can’t stay here. My mother and father will worry and Star. I need to go home now!”  
Wrathmelior shook her head, her large yellow eyes conveying some sense of sadness.  
“she says there is nothing she can do. She has to observe the rules of our domain and the only one who can override those rules that were sworn on the river Styx itself is Star’s mother and even then that will take time. She is going to send a messenger right now.”  
Tom growled already starting to smoke and blaze. His other rolled her eyes and then blew on her son to put out his flames.  
She stood and growled something her shoulder as she turned to leave the throne room through a monstrous door to their left.  
“yes, mother.”  
Marco turned to tom and crossed his arms tapping his foot on the onyx floor.  
“she says I must show you to your chambers and… be your chaperone for your extended stay as punishment.”  
“serves you right for trying to kidnap and entrap your ex to force her to get back with you!” Marco snipped.  
Tom was ablaze in seconds, billowing flame and smoke, and shadows but Marco was too annoyed to be frightened by the fireworks anymore.  
He brightened his glow as much he could till he was a blinding ball of light and stared Tom down.  
With a puff of smoke, Tom sighed and turned away first, storming off in the opposite direction his mother had down to a slightly smaller set of doors.  
He paused when Marco didn’t fallow.  
“well someone sunflower. Let me show you where you will be staying.”  
Marco bristled at the nickname but calmed his golden light and fallowed.

It would only be a few days, right? Just a few days and his mother and father would come down to meet him and bring him back tot eh world of light. Just a few days.

**Author's Note:**

> Had this idea floating around my head for a while and thought it was time I committed to it.  
> here we have Marco as a young nature god and Tom as Prince of the underworld.  
> will be posting the next chapter soon.  
> kudos and comments needed to keep me going


End file.
